The , also known as or , is a law that regulates entertainment places in Japan.

History

* 1948: Creation of the law. * April 1, 1959: Name change. * August 14, 1984: Extension to some businesses before midnight. * April 1998: Extension to some massage businesses and adult videos transmission by Internet. * November 2005: Penal regulation enforcement, various new rules. * January 2015: Proposition to relax the law is rejected. *Effective 2016 the law will be relaxed, allowing permits for exceptions as long as certain conditions are met including lighting and not operating near residential areas.

Targets

Businesses offering food and entertainment

* Category 1: Japanese cabaret. * Category 2:

Kyabakura A hostess club is a type of night club found primarily in Japan. They employ primarily female staff and cater to men seeking drinks and attentive conversation. The modern host club is a similar type of establishment where primarily male staff atte ...

(hostess bar). * Category 3: Business where customers can eat and dance. * Category 4: Dance hall. ** At first this covered dance schools too. Dance schools were removed from this category in 1998 after the movie Shall We Dance? made

ballroom dance Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television. ...

popular. * Category 5: Bar. * Category 6:

Mahjong Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-play ...

and

pachinko is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-st ...

parlor. * Category 7:

Amusement arcade An amusement arcade (often referred to as a video arcade, amusements or simply arcade) is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such as cl ...

Sex industry

* Within a local ** Category 1:

Soapland Prostitution, as defined under modern Japanese law, is the illegal practice of sexual intercourse with an 'unspecified' (unacquainted) person in exchange for monetary compensation, which was criminalised in 1956 by the introduction of article 3 of ...

. ** Category 2:

Fashion health Prostitution, as defined under modern Japanese law, is the illegal practice of sexual intercourse with an 'unspecified' (unacquainted) person in exchange for monetary compensation, which was criminalised in 1956 by the introduction of article 3 of ...

. ** Category 3:

Striptease A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper" or an "ex ...

theater,

Adult movie theater An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films. Adult movie theaters show pornographic films primarily for either a respectively heterosexual or homosexual audience. For the patro ...

. ** Category 4:

Love hotel A love hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found around the world operated primarily for the purpose of allowing guests privacy for sexual activities. The name originates from "Hotel Love" in Osaka, which was built in 1968 and had a rotating s ...

. ** Category 5:

Sex shop A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products. An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in th ...

, Adult video arcade. ** Category 6: Members-only bar for meeting persons of the opposite sex. This category was created on January 1, 2011. * Without a local ** Category 1: Delivery health (

call girl A call girl or female escort is a sex worker who (unlike a street walker) does not display her profession to the general public, nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by an escort agency.< ...

). ** Category 2:

Pornography Pornography (often shortened to porn or porno) is the portrayal of sexual subject matter for the exclusive purpose of sexual arousal. Primarily intended for adults,

mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing a ...

. * Others ** Pornography video by Internet, brothel selection websites. **

Telekura , an Japanese abbreviated and contracted words, abbreviation for , are telephone-based dating services originating in Japan. In the original incarnation of the telephone club, popular in the mid-1990s, a male client would pay a fee to enter a boo ...

. **

operated from home, for instance using a cellular telephone.

Businesses selling alcohol after midnight

Selling alcohol after midnight requires a permission. Also, after 10pm family restaurants must refuse non-accompanied people under 18 years old.

Authorization

Business in the "Businesses offering food and entertainment" class require an authorization from the prefecture's public safety commission. Business in the "Sex industry" and "Businesses selling alcohol after midnight" classes do not require an authorization, but require a notification.

Consequence on nightclubs

Dance is forbidden in nightclubs with dancefloors smaller than 66 square meters, or nightclubs that operate after 1am (midnight in some areas). While this rule has been mostly ignored for 50 years, since 2011 it has started to be enforced by the police in Osaka,

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

and Tokyo. This has led most nightclubs to display "No Dancing" signs, and some employ security personnel to actually prevent customers from dancing. In 2013, organization Let's Dance submitted a petition signed by 155,879 people to the

National Diet The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (Japan), House of Councillors (, ...

, demanding that the part of the law regulating dancing be updated. Let's Dance has a sub-group called Dance Lawyers, composed of lawyers. The cabinet agreed to lift the ban on dancing in October 2014. Some have speculated this was in view of the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

References

External links

Let's Dance
{{Prostitution in Japan Japanese legislation Entertainment in Japan Prostitution in Japan